Game still standing test of time

It’s traditionally held on the Thursday following Fastern’s E’en, and it’s claimed the first-ever game was played with the head of a dead Englishman.

Yes, it’s Jethart ba’, the annual event that pits uppies against doonies in a battle spanning generations – and the latest one takes place today.

The story about the first game is probably apochryphal, but the ribbons on today’s ba’s are said to signify the supposed poor chap’s hair.

With teams drawn from those born north of the Market Cross, the doonies, and those born to the south, the uppies, play takes place in the town centre.

The boys’ matches begin at noon, with the men’s games following at around 2pm, although timings can change, as it is not outwith the realms of imagination that a game can take hours to complete.

Play starts in the Market Place and the uppies’ goal is outside the castle jail, with the doonies’ goal at the Pleasance, each a couple of hundred yards from the Market Cross.

Organiser Billy Gilles said the ba’ was steeped in history.

He told us: “It’s been going since time immemorial.

“It used to be that a ba’ was played in every town and vilage in Britain, but these days it is sort of confined to the backwaters, and they all have their own ways.

“For instance, in Alnwick, it’s played with a football and in Derbyshire, they play it with a big heavy medicine ball.

“Here in Jed, it changed from being based on football back in 1703, and even today, kicking the ba’ is kind of frowned upon. However, there are no rules as such.”

That does not mean it is strictly a free-for-all, though.

Billy said: “Anybody entering the game knows what it entails, and ba’ players know not to be obstreperous because it won’t work, and any outsiders who want to take part and maybe get obstreperous, they will be quietly taken aside and put in their place with a word in their ear.